: John Edwards is going to start vlogging this week, with the help of the Rocketboom crew. Amanda Congden interviewed him for the first and from then on, anyone can send in a video question that he’ll answer on video.

Is he picking the questions? Technologically it’s cool and Edwards deserves some props for not only doing it but trying to meet with the people. But let’s see if he is hitting only softball lobs or answering some of the tough questions.

http://placenamehere.com chris

this going to go off better then his failed podcasting experiment?

http://jonnygoldstein.com jonny goldstein

Chris, how has the podcasting experiment failed?

http://www.rocketboom.com Amanda

So far, Senator Edwards has answered ALL of the questions that have come in. Tough ones included, very tough ones.

http://lonewacko.com The Lonewacko Blog

“What did you talk about at last year’s Bilderberg conference? Did it play a role in you being selected as the VP candidate?”
I have a follow-up:
“As best you can recollect, what did you, your wife, John Kerry, Teresa, and Ben Affleck have at the Newburgh, NY Wendy’s? Please be as specific as possible.”

sandy

I wonder if he will relate all the answers to this horrible “Two America’s” problem we are facing?
Does anybody really care what this ambulance chaser has to say? Give me a Break!
America will not elect a malpractice lawyer to the presidency. Ever.

http://dltq.blogs.com Raymond

I think this is a very cool experiment, and hopefully other politicians will follow suit. In my point of view, this is less about Edwards as a person, and more about getting Examples out there that this is possible. That it is possible for anyone with a digital stills camera with movie function to record their question, and then upload it to Ourmedia or a similar free service, and link to it. This way we could have questions being asked and answered – also in video – addressed to Edwards or the White House press office or the UN. “Exploding TV” indeed.

http://placenamehere.com chris

johnny: i had subscribed to the feed a while back amd it was ok, but then after a few weeks i didn’t get another posting. So I unsubscribed figuring the idea was abandoned.

http://www.15grant.com/mrsizer/blog/ mrsizer

Video blogging is a bad idea.
1. Video (and audio) are real-time media. That means that one has to absorb it at the rate it was recorded. Reading is ever so much faster.
2. Text doesn’t discriminate. There is no way of telling from this post if I am hideously ugly and have a horrid speaking voice. Ideas stand on their own independent of their promoters’ “beauty”.

http://jonnygoldstein.com jonny goldstein

mrsizer, I agree with you that there are some nice things about pure text blogging, but I disagree that this means videoblogging is a bad idea.
1) There are all kinds of information besides text. Someone’s tone of voice, body language, facial expressions are all elements of communication which video, and by extension, videoblogging, capture wonderfully, and which text, and by extension text blogging, do not. If you shut this down, you are shutting down major modes of communication. Video is also a supurb way to demostrate certain things, like how to plant a garden, how to sculpt a bowl, how to navigate a graphical user interface, etc. Text blogs can’t do this as well. epecially for visual learners.
2) It is true that text does not reveal the visual and sonic characteristics of it’s writer, and this can be a good thing. But that doens’t mean videoblogging is a bad thing. If you don’t want to videoblog, fine, but people who want to do so are going to. They may choose to video themselves, they may video other people. Whatever happens, they will be able to convey a message that is rich in ways text cannot be. People may judge them for their looks, or voices, but that’s life. Should everyone walk around in paper bags all the time so we can have a color blind society? Should people only read books and never go to the movies? Should blogs be restricted to text? I think not.